Beloved,^[1] let us praise her,^[2] through whom we have been saved. Let us love her; let us prefer her to wealth. Let us have a merciful soul apart from wealth. Nothing is more characteristic of a Christian than mercy. There is nothing that unbelievers and all people are so amazed at as when we are merciful. For we ourselves are often in need of this mercy and say to God, Have mercy on us according to the greatness of your mercy. Let us begin first ourselves; yet we do not begin first. For he has already shown his mercy that he has toward us. But, beloved, let us follow second. For if people have mercy on one who was merciful, even if he has committed countless sins, God is much more merciful.

Some monks called Euchites,^[1] or men of prayer, once came to Abba Lucius in the ninth region of Alexandria. And the old man asked them, What work do you do with your hands? And they said, We do not work with our hands. We obey St. Paul’s command and pray without ceasing. The old man said to them, Do you not eat? They said, Yes, we eat. And the old man said to them, When you are eating, who prays for you? Again, he asked them, Do you not sleep? They said, We sleep. And the old man said, Who prays for you while you are asleep? They would not answer him. And he said to them, Forgive me, brothers, but you do not practice what you say. I will show you how I pray without ceasing though I work with my hands. With God’s help, I sit and collect a few palm leaves, and interweave them and say, ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy: and according to the multitude of your mercies do away with my iniquity.’ And he said to them, Is that prayer, or is it not? They said, It is prayer.

Finally, holy David successfully gained divine mercy because, having been converted by the humility of a contrite heart, he condemned the evil he had done by acknowledging it and did not put off punishment by doing penance for the lust of the evil deed he had fallen into; because, if he had not punished the cause of the guilt in which he was held, without a doubt he would have been punished. Having been converted to penance, he acknowledged his crime, fearing lest he would have to acknowledge the penalty by being condemned. By doing penance, he punished himself by acknowledging what he wanted to be overlooked by the Lord in himself. Finally, since he said, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Immediately following this he added, For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. He acknowledged his sin, not that by sinning he might increase it the more, but that by repenting, he might wash it away; and so the domination of sin, which blameworthy enjoyment had brought in, true conversion removed. And because David, converted with all his heart, groaned, he was immediately saved and thus in him was fulfilled what is commanded through the prophet: If you are converted and groan, you will be saved.^[1]

Psalm 50 [51] shows the complete repentance of a sinner when David, who had gone into Bath-sheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite and was rebuked by the prophet Nathan, said, I have sinned. Immediately he deserved to hear The Lord has removed your sin from you.^[1] For he, who had added homicide to adultery and was moved to tears, said, God, have compassion on me according to your great pity, and according to the multitude of your mercies take away my iniquity. Since a great sin needed great mercy, he added, Wash me completely from my iniquity, and my offense is always before me. I have sinned against you only—for a king did not fear anyone else—and I have done evil in your sight so that you will be justified in your speaking and you overcome when you judge. For God has included all things under sin so that he may be merciful to all.^[2] He made so much progress that he who a little earlier had been a penitent sinner became a master and was able to say, I will teach the unjust your ways, and sinners will be converted to you.^[3] Since confession and beauty are before God,^[4] the one who confesses his sins and says, My wounds have been destroyed and become putrefied,^[5] changes the foulness of his wounds into a healthy state. But he who hides his sins will not prosper.^[6]

As the holy old man Pachomius was journeying to his own monastery and had come near the desert called Amnon, legions of demons rose both on his right hand and on his left, some following him and others running in front of him, saying, Behold the blessed man of God. They were doing this, wishing to sow vainglory in him. But he knew their cunning, and the more they shouted, the more he cried out to God, confessing his sins. And undoing the demons’ cunning, he spoke out to them, saying, O wicked ones! You cannot carry me away with you into vainglory, for I know my failures, for which I ought to weep constantly over eternal punishment. I have therefore no need of your false speech and guileful deceit, for your work is the destruction of the soul. And I am not carried away by your praises, for I know the cunning of your unholy minds. And although holy Pachomius said these things to them, they did not stop their shamelessness; they followed alongside the blessed man until he drew near his monastery.

As we were singing of the Lord, we asked him to turn his face away from our sins and to blot out all our misdeeds. But you can also take note, brothers, of what we heard in the same psalm: Since I myself acknowledge my misdeed, and my sin is always before me. Now somewhere else he says to God, Do not turn your face away from me,^[1] while here we have just said to him, Turn your face away from my sins. So since man^[2] and sinner are one person, the man says, Do not turn your face away from me, while the sinner says, Turn your face away from my sins. So what it amounts to is: Do not turn your face away from what you have done; turn your face away from what I have done. Let your eye, he says, distinguish between them, or else the nature may perish because of the flaw. You have done something, I too have done something. What you have done is called nature; what I have done is called a flaw. May the flaw be remedied and thus the nature preserved.

Who can understand his sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults, O Lord. See, the door of the third section opens,^[1] in which the prophet implores that all his sins would be washed away until the eloquence of his mouth would be rendered acceptable in the sight of the Lord. But because transgressions occur by means of human errors in three manners—thought, word and deed—he attests that that immense sea of sins, condensed in brevity, originates from two sources. The hidden sin is that which is called original, in which we are conceived, born and sin by a secret will, such as when we covet our neighbor’s property, when we desire to take vengeance on our enemies, when we want to be exalted above others, when we seek after tastier foods, and do things similar to these things. They sprout up and quietly seize us in such a way that they seem to be hidden to many until the deed is done. But if these things should be rendered visible to someone—as Solomon warns, Do not go after your evil desires^[2]—we nonetheless ought to notice that there are many sins which we altogether do not know, of which we are able to understand neither their origins nor their manners of snatching us away. One must understand the phrase Who understands all his sins? from this perspective, because when he will go on to say in Psalm 51, My sin is always before me and elsewhere, I have made my sin known to you,^[3] how can it not be understood that whenever he sins he is compelled to confess? But if you add the word all, then this objection is shown to be obviated.

I [the prodigal son] have sinned, he says, against heaven and before you.^[1] He confesses what is clearly a sin to death,^[2] that you may not think that any one doing penance is rightly shut out from pardon. For one who has sinned against heaven has sinned either against the kingdom of heaven or against his own soul, which is a sin to death, and against God, to whom alone is said: Against you only have I sinned and done evil before you.

So it is because of this quite unique innocence^[1] that the psalm says, Against you alone have I sinned and done what is evil in your presence, that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged, because he could find not a hint of evil in you [Jesus Christ]. Why could he find it in you, though, O human race? Because it goes on to say, For I myself was conceived in iniquity, and in sins did my mother conceive me. It is David saying this. Inquire how David was born; you will discover that it was of a lawful wife, not of adultery. So in terms of what sort of propagation does he say I was conceived in iniquity? It can only be that there is here a kind of propagation or transmission of death, which every person contracts who is born of the union of man and woman.

Celsus^[1] has not explained how error accompanies the becoming, or product of generation; nor has he expressed himself with sufficient clearness to enable us to compare his ideas with ours and to pass judgment on them. But the prophets, who have given some wise suggestions on the subject of things produced by generation, tell us that a sacrifice for sin was offered even for newborn infants, as not being free from sin. They say, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me; also, They are estranged from the womb; which is followed by the singular expression, They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.^[2]

But we, according to the epistle of James, all stumble in many things,^[1] and no one is pure from sin, no not if his life is but a day long.^[2] For who will boast that he has a clean heart? or who will be sure that he is pure from sin? And we are held guilty after the likeness of Adam’s transgression. Hence David says, Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And the blessed Job, Even if I were righteous, my mouth will speak wickedness; even if I were perfect, I will be found guilty. If I wash myself with soap and make my hands ever so clean, yet you will plunge me in the ditch, and even my own clothes will abhor me.^[3]

I need not go through the lives of the saints or call attention to the moles and blemishes that mark the fairest skins. Many of our writers, it is true, unwisely take this course; however, a few sentences of Scripture will dispose alike of the heretics and the philosophers. What does Paul say? For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all;^[1] and in another place, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.^[2] The preacher also who is the mouthpiece of the divine Wisdom freely protests and says, There is not a just person on earth, that does good and sins not,^[3] and again, When your people sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin,^[4] and who can say, I have made my heart clean?^[5] and none is clean from stain, not even if his life on earth has been but for one day. David insists on the same thing when he says, Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me; and in another psalm, in your sight shall no man living be justified.^[6] This last passage they try to explain away from motives of reverence, arguing that the meaning is that no human being is perfect in comparison with God. Yet the Scripture does not say, in comparison with you no one living shall be justified but in your sight no one living shall be justified. And when it says in your sight it means that those who seem holy to people are by no means holy to God in his fuller knowledge. For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.^[7] But if in the sight of God who sees all things and to whom the secrets of the heart lie open^[8] no one is just; then these heretics,^[9] instead of adding to human dignity, clearly take away from God’s power. I might bring together many other passages of Scripture of the same import; but were I to do so, I should exceed the limits not of a letter but of a volume.

After this white robes^[1] were given to you as a sign that you were putting off the covering of sins and putting on the chaste veil of innocence, of which the prophet said, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.^[2] For one who is baptized is seen to be purified according to the law and according to the gospel: according to the law, because Moses sprinkled the blood of the lamb with a bunch of hyssop;^[3] according to the gospel, because Christ’s garments were white as snow, when in the Gospel he showed forth the glory of his resurrection. One, then, whose guilt is forgiven is made whiter than snow. Thus God said through Isaiah: Though your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.^[4]

So all past sins are forgiven people on conversion; but for the rest of this life there are certain grave and deadly sins, from which one can be released only by the most vehement and distressing humbling of the heart and contrition of spirit^[1] and the pain of repentance. These are forgiven through the keys of the church.^[2] If you start judging yourself, you see, if you start being displeased with yourself, God will come along to show you mercy. If you are willing to punish yourself, he will spare you. In fact, all who repent and do penance well are punishing themselves. They have to be severe with themselves, so that God may be lenient with them. As David says, Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. But on what terms? He says in the same psalm, Since I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.^[3] So if you acknowledge it, God overlooks it.

God does not listen to sinners. When he^[1] was beating his breast, he was punishing his sins; when he was punishing his sins, he was associating himself with God as judge. God, you see, hates sins; if you too hate them, you are beginning to join God, so that you can say to him, Turn your face away from my sins. Turn your face away—but from what? From my sins. Do not turn your face away from me.^[2] What’s the meaning of your face from my sins? Don’t see them, don’t look at them; overlook them instead, so that you can pardon me.

This is the Spirit who at the beginning moved on the face of the waters;^[1] by whom the world moves; by whom creation consists and all things have life; who also worked mightily in the prophets^[2] and descended in flight on Christ.^[3] This is the Spirit who was given to the apostles in the form of fiery tongues.^[4] This is the Spirit who David sought when he said, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Of this Spirit Gabriel also spoke to the Virgin, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you.^[5] By this Spirit Peter spoke that blessed word, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.^[6] By this Spirit the rock of the church was established.^[7] This is the Spirit, the Comforter, who is sent because of you, that he may show you^[8] to be the Son of God.

In addition to what has already been said, those who cleanse the head, which is the seat of knowledge, would do well to hold fast to Christ as their head. It is from him that the entire body is joined together^[1] and reconciled. And to cast aside our sin which arises and to seek to surpass the better part. It is also good that they should cleanse the shoulder so that it will be able to bear the cross of Christ, which is not borne easily by everyone. It is also good to consecrate the hands and the feet—the hands so that they may be lifted up in every holy place and grasp the teachings of Christ lest the Lord be angered at any time^[2] and to believe the Word by living it as when it was given into the hand of the prophet; the feet so that they will not be quick to shed blood or rush into evil but that they may be ready to hurry to the gospel and to their high calling and to receive Christ, who washes and purifies them. If anyone is clean in his stomach, which is able to hold and digest the food of the Word, he should not make a god of nourishment and meat that perishes; rather he should especially reduce its size so that he may receive the Word of the Lord in its very midst and to grieve deeply over the failing of Israel. I also find the heart and the inward parts worthy of honor. David convinced me of this when he asked that a clean heart be created within him and a right spirit be consecrated in his innermost being—by this I think he clearly means his mind and its emotions or thoughts.

It would be better to be defiled with unclean mud than with sins. A person who is defiled with mud can wash it off in a short time and become like one who had never fallen into that mire at all. But one who has fallen into the deep pit of sin has contracted a defilement that is not cleansed by water but needs a long period of time, strict repentance, tears and lamentations and more wailing—and that more fervent than we show at the loss of one of our dearest friends. For this defilement attaches to us from without, wherefore we also quickly put it away, but the other is generated from within, where it is more difficult to wash it off and to cleanse ourselves from it. For from the heart (it is said) proceed evil thoughts, fornications, adulteries, thefts, false witnesses.^[1] Thus, the prophet also said, Create in me a clean heart, O God. And another prophet said, Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem.^[2] (You see that it is both our [work] and God’s.) And again, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.^[3]

We are then truly free when God ordered our lives, that is, formed and created us not as individuals—this he has already done—but also as good people, which he is now doing by his grace, that we may indeed be new creatures in Christ Jesus.^[1] Accordingly, the prayer Create in me a clean heart, O God. This does not mean, as far as the natural human heart is concerned, that God has not already created this.

Let us call to mind that he promised that [Jesus] would send the grace of the Spirit to his disciples, and he did send it. And let us take care with all watchfulness, lest by our seductive thoughts we grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom we have been sealed for the day of redemption.^[1] For so it is written, The Holy Spirit will flee the pretense of discipline, and will remove himself from thoughts that are without understanding.^[2] When the psalmist was burning with the desire to receive this Spirit, he providently sought first [to have] the guest chamber of a clean heart in which he could receive him, and so at length [he] sought the entry of so great a guest. Create a clean heart in me, O God, he said, renew an upright spirit in my inmost parts. He entreated that first a clean heart be created in him and then that an upright spirit be renewed in his inmost parts, because he knew that an upright spirit could have no place in a defiled heart.

It is only by participation in the divine goodness that a rational creature is recognized as being capable of becoming good. Hence the Lord also bears witness by a benevolent promise that your Father from heaven will give his good Spirit to those who ask him.^[1] This is to point out that those who of themselves are evil can become good through receiving the gift of the Spirit. He pledged that his good Spirit would be given by the Father to those asking for him, because whether we desire to secure faith, hope and charity, or any other heavenly goods at all, they are not bestowed on us in any other way than by the gift of the Holy Spirit. So it is that the same Spirit, in Isaiah, is named the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord;^[2] and in another place, the Spirit of love and peace^[3] [and] the Spirit of grace and prayers.^[4] Undoubtedly whatever good we truly have, whatever we do well, this we receive from the lavishness of the same Spirit. When a prophet who understood this was seeking purity of heart, saying, Create a pure heart in me, O Lord, he immediately added, Renew a steadfast spirit within me. If the steadfast Spirit of the Lord does not fill our innermost being, we have no pure heart where he may abide. When in his eager longing for an advance in good for his work he had said, Lord, I have had recourse to you, teach me to do your will,^[5] he at once showed in what way he had to secure this when he went on, Let your good Spirit lead me into the right way.^[6]

We shall now examine what kinds of ideas about the Spirit we hold in common, as well as those that we have gathered from the Scriptures or received from the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. First of all, who can listen to the Spirit’s titles and not be lifted up in his soul? Whose thoughts would not be raised to contemplate the supreme nature? He is called the Spirit of God,^[1] the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,^[2] right Spirit, willing Spirit. His first and most proper title is Holy Spirit, a name most especially appropriate to everything that is incorporeal, purely immaterial and indivisible.

As for the fact that he says, And he has looked upon,^[1] he indicates the grace of the one who shows mercy. We say that they see that we look upon those to whom we declare that something has also been offered. And consider that he did not say that the sins were seen, but rather the sons of men were.^[2] For when God looks at their sins, he punishes them; when he looks at a person, he absolves them, just as he will say in Psalm 51, Turn your face from my sins,^[3] and elsewhere, Do not turn your face away from me. Thus, we must understand and retain this salutary distinction.

The one who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has been truly perfected. By this we know that we are in him; he who says that he abides in him ought himself also to walk as he walked.^[1] My reason for telling you, little children, that everyone who is born of God does not sin, is that you should not sin and that you should know that as long as you do not sin you abide in the birth^[2] that God has given you. Truly, they who abide in that birth cannot sin. For what does light have in common with darkness? Or Christ with Belial?^[3] As day is distinct from night, so righteousness and unrighteousness, sin and good works, Christ and Antichrist cannot blend. If we give Christ a lodging place in our hearts, we banish the devil therefrom. If we sin and the devil enters through the gate of sin, Christ will immediately withdraw. Hence David after sinning says, Restore to me the joy of your salvation, that is, the joy that he had lost by sinning.

People are in error who think that the priests of the Lord, after a lapse, although they may have exhibited true repentance, are not capable of ministering to the Lord and engaging their honorable offices, even though they may lead a good life thereafter and perform their priesthood correctly. Individuals who hold this opinion are not only in error but also seem to argue and act in opposition to the power of the keys committed to the church, of which it is said, Whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.^[1] In short, this opinion either is not the Lord’s or it is true. Be that as it may, we believe without hesitation that both the priests of the Lord and other believers may return to their place of honor after a proper satisfaction for their error, as the Lord testifies through his prophet: Shall he who falls not also rise again? and shall he who turns away not return?^[2] In another passage the Lord says, I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he may turn and live.^[3] The prophet David, on his repentance, said, Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with your free Spirit. And he indeed, after his repentance, taught others also and offered sacrifice to God, giving thereby an example to the teachers of the holy church, that if they have fallen and thereafter have exhibited a right repentance to God, they may do both things in like manner. For he taught when he said, I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to you. And he offered sacrifice for himself when he said, The sacrifice for God is a broken spirit.^[4] For the prophet, seeing his own transgressions purged by repentance, had no doubt as to healing those of others by preaching and by making offering to God. Thus the shedding of tears moves the mind’s feeling (passionem). And when the satisfaction is made good, the mind is turned aside from anger. For how does that person think that mercy will be shown to himself, who does not forgive his neighbor? If offences abound, then, let mercy also abound; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plentiful redemption.^[5]

So then Rome, the head of the nations, has these two lights of the nations^[1] lit by the one who enlightens every person who comes into this world^[2]—one light in which God has exalted the most abject lowliness, the other in which he cured the wickedness that deserved to be condemned. With the former let us learn not to be proud, with the latter not to despair. How simply these great examples have been set before us, and how salutary they are! Let us always commemorate them and in praising them glorify that true light.^[3] So none of us should get a swollen head about having a high position in the world; Peter was a fisherman. None of us, reflecting on our own iniquity, should run away from God’s mercy; Paul was a persecutor. The former says, The Lord has become the refuge of the poor;^[4] the latter says, Let me teach the wicked your ways, and the godless will be converted to you.

At the time David spoke in this way: Since if you had wanted a sacrifice I would certainly have given one; in burnt offerings you will not delight. [However,] those sacrifices that were still offered to God are no longer offered now. He was prophesying, therefore, when he said this: he was rejecting current customs and foreseeing future ones. In burnt offerings, he says, you will not delight. When you [the congregation] stop delighting in burnt offerings, will you be left without any sacrifice? Certainly not. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit: a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise. Therefore you do have something to offer. Don’t look around the flock, don’t fit out ships and travel to far distant regions to bring back incense. Look in your own heart for what may be acceptable to God. The heart has to be crushed. Why be afraid it will be destroyed if you crush it? There you have the answer: Create a clean heart in me, O God.^[1] For a clean heart to be created, let the unclean heart be crushed.

To us, therefore, David says, A sacrifice to God is a broken heart; an aroma pleasing to the Lord is a heart that glorifies its Maker.^[1] So, brothers, we ought to give very careful attention to our salvation, lest the evil one should cause some error to slip into our midst and thereby hurl us away from our life.

Other things too must be added to humbleness of mind if it is such as the blessed David knew, when he said, A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise. For that which is broken does not rise up, does not strike, but is ready to be ill-treated and itself does not rise up. Such is contrition of heart: though it is insulted, though it is enticed by evil, it is quiet and is not eager for vengeance.

But how shall a person find grace with God? How else, except by lowliness of mind? For God, James says, resists the proud but gives grace to the humble;^[1] and the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit, and a heart that is brought low God will not despise. For if humility is so lovely to human beings, it is much more so with God. Thus both the Gentiles found grace and the Jews did not fall from grace in any other way, for they were not subject to the righteousness of God.^[2] The lowly person of whom I am speaking is pleasing and delightful to all people, and dwells in continual peace and has in him no ground for contentions. For even if you insult him, even if you abuse him, whatever you say, he will be silent and will bear it meekly; he will have so great a peace toward all people that one cannot even describe it. Yes, and with God also. For the commandments of God are to be at peace with human beings: and thus our whole life is made prosperous, through peace one with another.

So this lad^[1] had already crushed his heart in a region afflicted with famine; I mean, he had returned to his heart to pound his heart; he had previously left his heart in pride; he had now returned to his heart in anger. He was angry with himself, ready to punish not himself but his wrongdoing; he had returned, ready to earn his father’s right response. He spoke in anger, according to the text, Be angry, and do not sin.^[2] Re-pentance, you see, always means being angry with yourself, seeing that because you are angry, you punish yourself. That is the source of all those gestures in penitents who are truly repentant, truly sorry; the source of tearing the hair, of wrapping oneself in sackcloth, of beating the breast. Surely these are all indications of being savage with oneself, being angry with oneself. What the hand does outwardly, the conscience does inwardly; it lashes itself in its thoughts, it beats itself, indeed, to speak more truly, it slays itself. It is by slaying itself, you see, that it offers itself a sacrifice to God, a crushed spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not reject. Just so, then, this lad by pounding, humbling, beating his heart, slew his heart.

No matter how great our crimes, forgiveness of them should never be despised in the holy church for those who truly repent, each according to the measure of his sin. And, in the act of repentance, where a crime has been committed of such gravity as also to cut off the sinner from the body of Christ, we should not consider the amount of time as much as the degree of sorrow. For a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise.

I have not yet alluded to the true and first wisdom, for which our wonderful husbandman and shepherd^[1] is conspicuous. The first wisdom is a life worthy of praise, in which a person keeps himself pure for God or is purified for him who is all-pure and all-luminous. God demands of us, as his only sacrifice, purification—that is, a contrite heart, the sacrifice of praise,^[2] a new creation in Christ,^[3] the new man,^[4] and the like, as the Scripture loves to call it.